Aether Vial. That's about the only way I can imagine you running only 18 Islands but still managing to drop threats to pressure the opponent AND be able to counter an important spell at the same time.
I mean, not dropping a creature and leaving 2-3 mana open just screams, "I'm going to play a non-free counter spell" which will probably lead to a smart opponent baiting it.
You might find Spell Pierce to a be a little bit easier on the curve. It's more limited, yes, but how many creature spells do you really want to go out of your way to counter? If your meta is as aggressive as this deck is (3 CMC and lower) then you might have trouble justifying spending 2 blue mana and a card just to answer a Tarmogoyf, instead opting to fly over its head and win that way.
I've always seen illusions and stealing go hand in hand pretty well. I agree with eximperial about the counters, you'd do better to replace those with something like Control Magic, Dream Leash, or Dominate.
You could also go the defensive route and put in some Sleeps for that swing-for-the-kill turn.
I would cut the 4 delvers and add 4 islands, because it looks like you will often have severe mana problems with that list, also I think you are running too few instants and sorceries to justify delver in the first place.
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Decks I play:
Legacy:
Pox
Demon Stompy
Black Knights
Modern:
Tainted Shadow
MBC
8 Rack
Casual:
Suicide Black
Old-school Nightmare Effect
EDH:
Anowon, the Ruin Sage
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of the Unreal
4 Krovikan Mist
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Vapor Snag
4 Ponder
4 Counterspell
4 Daze
2 Dismember
18 Island
I mean, not dropping a creature and leaving 2-3 mana open just screams, "I'm going to play a non-free counter spell" which will probably lead to a smart opponent baiting it.
You might find Spell Pierce to a be a little bit easier on the curve. It's more limited, yes, but how many creature spells do you really want to go out of your way to counter? If your meta is as aggressive as this deck is (3 CMC and lower) then you might have trouble justifying spending 2 blue mana and a card just to answer a Tarmogoyf, instead opting to fly over its head and win that way.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
You could also go the defensive route and put in some Sleeps for that swing-for-the-kill turn.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
So Pro I have an alpha Volcanic Island
Decks I play:
-Friedrich Nietzsche
with all these lords, hazy homunculus can be fun
i dislike delver of secrets here
there are other fun creatures that can be fun in that deck
and the classic
[CARD]
adaptive automaton
[/CARD]
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Or if you were running green you could run: Descendants' Path